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I had high expectations from the finance minister. But I was a bit disappointed with the outcome. I did not see any big announcements and big-ticket reforms from Arun Jaitley.

Instead, there were many initiatives announced, which I felt deviated from his stated purpose of "maximum governance, minimum government". At one point, I was a bit lost with the number of allocations that he announced.

However, there were a few key positive measures such as investment in the infrastructure sector, focus on agricultural growth, release of food stocks to curtail food prices, formation of committees to tackle issues such as transfer pricing, initiatives that would ease doing business in India.

But I felt Mr Jaitley should have been aggressive with foreign direct investment rather than capping it at 49 per cent (in insurance and defence manufacturing).

While there was some degree of assurance that retrospective tax amendments would be looked at with caution, I felt it was below expectation.

The government could have announced an amnesty scheme to bring back money lying abroad or privatise coal mines. These are path-breaking reforms that the industry expects.

Much will depend on execution by the ministries receiving the money, which is beyond his purview.